Havana, November 14 (JIT) -- The Sancti Spíritus Roosters remained as sole leaders of the II Elite Cuban Baseball League (LEBC), after beating Matanzas on Monday and Industriales lost to Santiago de Cuba.
Sancti Spiritus beat the Matanzas Cocodrilos for the second consecutive day (4x3) and added their fifth victory in the championship with only one loss.
The game was decided with a pair of runs in the eighth inning, pushed by Yunier Mendoza's jit and Yaser Julio González's sacrifice fly.
The third pitcher of the Gallos, Ariel Zerquera (3.2IP, 3H, 1K, 1BB), got the win and Yanielquis Duardo (1.0 IP, 1BB) got the first save of the game.
The Cocodrilos suffered their fourth straight setback after starting the tournament with a pair of wins over Santiago de Cuba. They share last place with Artemisa.
The Avispas de Santiago de Cuba evened the sub-series at one win per side against Industriales after winning 7x6 with a three-run package in the seventh inning, when they executed a squeeze play and then a wild pitch by Frank Herrera opened the doors to home plate for two runners.
The Avispas bullpen took over the decisions with a win for Yosiel Serrano (2.1IP, 1H, 1BB) and a save for Adrián Sosa, despite allowing three hits and giving up one ticket in an inning and a third.
For Industriales, the Azules, Raico Santos hit his second home run of the season and leads the team, in which the surprising note is provided by the Matanzas batters, who have not yet hit a home run.
Meanwhile, the Cazadores de Artemisa defeated the Leñadores de Las Tunas (12x2), thus returning the knockout received on Sunday and evened the bilateral pairing, thanks to the complete work of starter Yunieski García (7.0 IP, 2CL, 9H, 5K) and defeat for Alejandro Meneses.
In the abundant offensive production of 16 hits, four of them doubles, the outstanding players were Andy Cosme (4-3, 4CI, 2CA), José Antonio Jiménez (4-2, 2CI), Ronmy Proenza (2.2, 2CI, 2CA) and Osbel Pacheco (3-3, 2CA).
Sancti Spíritus (5-1) is followed in the standings by Industriales (4-2), Santiago de Cuba (3-3) and Las Tunas, Matanzas and Artemisa, all with 2-4 records.
The Cuban winter league has a schedule of 40 games per team between November and December. The top four teams in the standings will advance to the post-season in January.
